The invention relates to a picture display device for displaying pictures having a first aspect ratio and pictures having a second aspect ratio on a display screen having the first aspect ratio, comprising means for applying a signal to pixels which are not associated with the second aspect ratio picture when a second aspect ratio picture is being displayed. Aspect ratio is herein understood to mean the ratio between the width and the height of the picture.
A picture display device of this type is known from Netherlands Patent Application NL-A-8700058 (PHN 12.005). When a picture having a second aspect ratio is displayed in this known picture display device, a signal is applied to the other portions of the screen for each line, resulting in a luminance which is equal to the average luminance of the line of the picture. The picture is displayed in an undistorted form in this way and there will be no sharp transitions in the ageing of the display screen or of the display elements (in projection television).
A drawback of this known picture display device is that the edges of the picture, the side panels, with an average luminance per line have a disturbing effect for the user of the picture display device.